Past Events
Agoraphobes and Broken Bones
Tuesday October 17, 2017 — 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Runnymede Library – Program Room – 2178 Bloor Street West
Governor General Award-winning author Nicolas Dickner and critically acclaimed author Martha Baillie on their new novels, Six Degrees of Freedom and If Clara, and featuring characters with agoraphia, a broken leg and are clandestine investigators.
Audience Q&A and book signing to follow. Books available for purchase courtesy of Type Books.
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Book Launch – If Clara:
Tuesday September 19 – Doors & music 7:00 PM – Readings 7:30 PM
The Burdock – 1184 Bloor St. W.
Martha launches If Clara, joined by Camilla Grudova with The Doll’s Alphabet.
Jonno Lightstone, Brian Katz, and George Koler play Klezmer and Jazz
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Koffler Gallery – Erratics – an Installation:
Ongoing: April 16 – June 14, 2015
Koffler Gallery — Artscape Youngplace
180 Shaw Street
Toronto, ON
M6J 2W5
Toronto author Martha Baillie brings to life her most recent book, The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, through a multi-media installation. … more>
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New Narratives of the Postcolonial Arctic:
May 27-29, 2015 – Roskilde and Copenhagen, Denmark
Martha will give the concluding keynote address:
“Core Sample: Writing the Postcolonial Arctic”
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Adelaide Festival Of Arts – Australia:
TIME TRAVELLERS: MARTHA BAILLIE, ELIA BARCELÓ
Sat 28 Feb
2.30pm – 3.30pm
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden
BAFFIN ISLAND: MARTHA BAILLIE
Tue 03 Mar
10.45pm – 11.45am
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden
Video: LAURA KROETSCH INTRODUCES MARTHA BAILLIE
Martha Baillie is the author of four novels, including The Incident Report, a wry and deeply moving story of a librarian in Toronto. Most recently she has published The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, the haunting novel of a young man’s journey into the Canadian wilderness. Baillie herself has crossed the Arctic Circle on foot.
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An Evening of Readings & Discussion
Tuesday January, 2015
7:00 PM
Another Story Book Shop
… with Martha Baillie and Christine Fischer Guy, moderated by Peter Lynch
315 Roncesvalles Ave.
Toronto ON M6R 2M6, Canada
Phone: 416.462.1104 Fax: 416.462.9115
Email: books@anotherstory.ca
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The eh List Author Series
Thursday, November 6, 2014
7:00 PM
Toronto Reference Library — Elizabeth Beeton Auditorium
Martha will read from The Search for Heinrich Schlogel and be interviewed by visual artist, Iris Haussler
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Toronto International Book Fair
Saturday, November 15, 2014 – 12:30 PM
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (N. Building)
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Vancouver Writers Fest
Friday October 24, 2014
The Tangled Web, 1-2:30 PM, Studio 1398
The Magnetic North, 6-7:15 PM, Studio 1398
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IFOA
International Festival of Authors
Harbourfront – Toronto
FIT (Found in Translation) – Martha Baillie (moderator), Maylis de Kerangal, Nancy Huston, Jessica Moore (translator)
Saturday, October 25, 2014
1:00 PM
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Reading: Martha Baillie, Gary Geddes, Joseph Kertes
Saturday, October 25, 2014
7:30 PM
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Round Table: Martha Baillie, Miriam Toews, Rudy Wiebe
Saturday, November 01, 2014
3:00 PM
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Ottawa Writers Festival
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 — 6:30 PM
Knox Presbyterian Church • 120 Lisgar Street (at Elgin)
Martha Baillie, David Bezmozgis and Dionne Brand
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice is this: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Three acclaimed authors explore our longing for connection, the consequences of our choices and the need to live life on our own terms regardless of the cost.
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New Music 101:
Arraymusic with Martha Baillie, and Music in the Barns
Monday, October 06, 2014
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Toronto Reference Library — Hinton Learning Theatre
AND
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Palmerston Library
Arraymusic and author Martha Baillie demonstrate the complementary nature of musical and literary narratives, performing compositions by Nic Gotham written for Baillie’s The Search For Heinrich Schlogel. Music in the Barns demonstrates their boundary-pushing performances through the interplay of acoustic instruments and live electronic processing.
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Kingston Writer’s Festival
Saturday Night SpeakEasy
September 27, 2014
9:00 PM –11:00 PM / Bellevue
Julie Brown & Friends
Performance
Join us for a night of stories and poems set within the original musical landscape of our house band, jazz combo Trio Without Words, led by local saxophone virtuoso Jonathan Stewart, and backed by bassist Michael Perlin and drummer Mike Cassells. Lively literary performances by Martha Baillie, George Elliott Clarke, Wayne Clifford,Jeramy Dodds, Steven Galloway, Aislinn Hunter, Robert McGill, Kim Thúy, and Miriam Toews. Hosted by local TV personality CKWS anchor Julie Brown. Cash bar. Doors open at 8:15 pm.
Core Sample: Installation Art and the Written Word
Sunday, September 28, 2014
2:00–3:00 pm / Sir John A. Macdonald Room
Martha Baillie
Writers Studio/TeensWrite!
For author and visual artist Martha Baillie (The Search for Heinrich Schlögel) books are physical entities, writing a process unfolding in time. Thinking spatially allows us to play with time more freely in our writing. Students respond in writing to physical objects, thinking spatially about tension, movement, balance, and how these translate into story, provide insight into structure, and show time unfolding in non-linear ways. If a hand-held egg beater were your story: what is making the two central characters spin? A conflict? An event? Whose hand turns the crank? Martha shows how to listen to your materials and take risks. Limited enrolment
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Thin Air Festival, Winnipeg
Wednesday, September 24
Afternoon Book Chat – 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Martha Baillie joins André Alexis at McNally Robinson.
Wednesday, September 24
MainStage — MTYP – 7:30 PM
André Alexis, Martha Baillie, David Bergen, Doretta Lau, Maurice Mierau, David Robertson
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Book Launch
The Search For Heinrich Schlögel
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Doors open at 7:30. Start time: 8:00 PM
Gladstone Hotel
Event will include live performance of music composed by Nic Gotham in response to the novel, author interview, and more …
Hosted by Pages UnBound
Audience members – postcard recipients explained here – suddenly stood up and began reading passages aloud …
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Author-Editor Relations
Friday, June 6
9 AM to 12 PM
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, Room 241
209 Victoria Street
Muse or tyrant? Midwife or surgeon? How do writers see their editors? This seminar will look at this crucial relationship from the first encounter through to publication and beyond. It will include strategies on how to ensure a good working relationship and how to encourage writers to do their best work. In addition, author Martha Baillie will discuss the experience of being edited and offer a view from the other side of the desk, virtual or otherwise.
Registration – $115 members, $140 non-members (HST extra)
Early Registration (to May 30) – $100 members, $120 non-members (HST extra)
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Bookbound: The Library in Artistic Imagination
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Koffler Gallery Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street
From childhood to adulthood, the library sparks our imagination and fuels our creativity, shaping our individual and shared experiences of books. Beyond this universal relationship, it continues to inspire a wealth of artistic perspectives. Visual artist Adam David Brown, author and librarian Martha Baillie, and psychoanalyst and psychiatry professor Dr. David Dorenbaum explore these themes in a conversation moderated by Mona Filip, Curator of the Koffler Gallery. Preceded by an artist-led tour of the exhibition, We’re In The Library
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International Festival of Authors – IFOA
Martha moderates two session:
Breaking Through. Going Global
October 26 2013 – 2:00 PM
International authors discuss the role they played in the translation of their works and the experience of being translated into English for the first time.
EUROPE@IFOA
October 27 2013 – 12:00 PM
Diego Marani, Abdellah Taïa and Rui Zink weigh in on contemporary literature in Europe.
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European Book Club
“Rue des Boutiques Obscures”
by Patrick Modiano
March 13, 2013, 6:30 pm
Discussion in English , moderated by Martha Baillie.
Alliance Francaise, Galerie Pierre-Léon,
24 Spadina Road, Toronto, ON
In English
Free, please RSVP
Please register by email
toronto@alliance-francaise.ca
Copies of the book can be ordered online or ask at your local bookstore.
“Rue des Boutiques Obscures” is an intriguing novel about Guy Roland, a private investigator suffering from amnesia. Rolant goes on a quest to find out about his past, meets a cast of characters who may, or may not, know about who he was.
Haunting, beautiful and exquisitely written, yet not showy, Modiano’s melancholic novel is a seminal work of French literature from the seventies.
Patrick Modiano, born 1945, is a French novelist and winner of the Grand prix du roman de l’Académie française and the Prix Goncourt in 1978 for his novel “Rue des boutiques obscures”.
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Colloquium on narrative
for University of Guelph MFA students
Friday March 22 at 7:30
Structuring the Novel, a panel with Martha Baillie, Catherine Bush, Michael Helm and Miriam Toews.
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Radio-Canada interview
March 12, 2013
Martha discusses a postcard incarnation of her upcoming novel.
Interview in french by Line Boily of CBC Radio-Canada.
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Monday, February 25, 2013 – 6:30 pm
AGO Next members will hear from writer Martha Baillie, artist Jennifer Rose Sciarrino, and AGO curator Georgiana Uhlyarik about world-renowned artist Michael Snow and his work
Canadian art icon Michael Snow is recognized for his work in painting, sculpture, film, photography, holography, drawing and music. Join us to learn about the profound impact he has had on contemporary art.
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Creative Writing in the 21st Century
Saturday, May 12th
Attend this exciting event, and be sure not to miss Martha on panel – 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
Session 29. Ways of Looking
Location: L3010
Chair: Catherine Bush
Martha Baillie – The Novel As Core Sample: Installation Art and the Novel
Catherine Bush – Looking As A Writer: Ethics and Attentiveness
Michael Helm – Teaching the Uses of Blur
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Vote for the Incident Report!
The Incident Report chosen by a Toronto book store for a special in store competition…
Follow the link to Another Story Bookshop.
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Writing Workshop at Toronto New School of Writing
“Core Sample II: installation art and the novel”
Course is FULL – sorry.
Instructor: Martha Baillie
Duration: (5 weeks) 18 January – 15 February 2012 6-8 PM
“A core sample is a cylindrical section of a (usually) naturally-occuring substance consistent enough to hold a layered structure.”
“Honest speech is a relief not a discovery.” (Louise Glück)
In this course, following from the groundwork set in Core Sample 1, we will further explore the novel as core sample. New participants are welcome. Works by such contemporary visual artists as Rachel Whiteread, Flavio Trevisan, Betty Goodwin and others will serve as starting points to discuss possible approaches to writing fiction. We will consider issues of voice, non-linear narrative, and how to avoid sacrificing emotional engagement when experimenting with form and structure. Participants will be given gestural, in-class writing exercises (often involving a physical object as structural reference) and the opportunity to bring in excerpts from ongoing work. The writer’s task of transforming the actual into the true and the importance of distinguishing truth from honesty or sincerity will be examined. We will read brief texts by such authors and artists as John Banville, Christian Boltanski, Italo Calvino, J.M. Coetzee and Chris Marker. The course will last five weeks and each session will be two hours in length..
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Martha interviews Drew Hayden Taylor
Monday June 21, 2010
Join Martha at North York Central Library, as she interviews Drew Hayden Taylor about his new novel: Motorcycles & Sweetgrass.
“If the great Ojibway trickster Nanabush wrote fiction, I imagine he’d write
just like Drew Hayden Taylor.” Joseph Boyden
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Tuesday May 11, 2010
7:00 p.m.
Aurora Public Library is pleased to present Toronto author, Martha Baillie reading from her novel, The Incident Report, long-listed for the 2009 Giller prize. Copies available for sale and signing.
Magna Room – Aurora Public Library
905-727-9493, option 4
free 18+
Pre-register at the Adult Information Desk
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Meet Martha Baillie
Friday April 16, 2010, 2:00 p.m.
Martha Baillie reads from The Incident Report, set in a fictitious Toronto Public Library branch.
Eatonville Library, 430 Burnhamthorpe Road, 416-394-5270
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Friday Nights with Diaspora Dialogues
Friday April 16, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Enjoy readings by Edeet Ravel, Glenn Sumi, Julia Zarankin, Kerri Sakamoto, Yiwei Hu and Yvette Nolan. Special performances by Martha Baillie, Fides Krucker, Nik Beeson and Waawaate Frobisher.
(Martha’s performance will be a re-interpreting of a story by Keri Sakamoto)
Palmerston Library, 560 Palmerston Avenue, 416-393-7680
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Dark Valentines
Monday February 15, 2010 – 7:30 PM
You are cordially invited to attend an evening of talk and readings by the authors of Pedlar Press; Martha Baillie, Ronna Bloom, Jason Hrivnak, Jacqueline Larson, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Jacob Wren.
The Victory Cafe, 581 Markham Street, second floor
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Pivot Readings at the Press Club
Wednesday February 10, 2010 – 8:00 PM
Join host Carey Toane at the Press Club for an intriguing mix of readings by Martha Baillie, Jacob McArthur Mooney and Damian Rogers.
The Press Club, 850 Dundas Street West (416) 364-7183
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Friday January 15, 2010
3:30 p.m
Presentation of the book:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery
The meeting will be led by the writer Martha Baillie
The Alliance Française of Toronto, along with the Istituto di Cultura, and the Goethe Institut, are proud to announce their next book club meeting on Friday, January 15th at 3:30pm. The club meets periodically in a different cultural institute to discuss a contemporary European novel, translated in English, that is well-known in the institute home country.
AFT Spadina
24 Spadina Road
416.922.2014 Ext.35
Please RSVP: patricia.guerin@alliance-francaise.ca
http://www.alliance-francaise.ca/
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Tuesday November 17, 2009
7:00 p.m
Long Branch Library, 3500 Lakeshore Blvd. West
(416) 394-5320
– or –
Wednesday December 9, 2009
7:00 PM
Bloor Gladstone Library, 1101 Bloor St. West
(416) 393-7674
Martha Baillie talks about her new book The Incident Report that is set in the heart of Toronto, at the Allan Gardens Public Library, home to the mad and the marginalized, the novel is both a mystery and an erotic love story, told in 144 brief lyric reports that ricochet off each other to form an utterly unusual and compelling novel.
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The eh List Author Series
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
7:00 pm Taylor Memorial Branch, Toronto Public Library
Meet the Canadian writers everyone’s reading! Welcome to The eh List Author Series. We’re showcasing Canada’s best writers and their new books and they’re coming to a library near you. With eight locations on offer, you can go down the street or across the city to meet the writers everyone’s reading. Join us for a truly eh-list literary experience.
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20th Annual The Word On The Street Toronto
Sunday, September 27, 2009
11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – Queens Park
Free Admission
The Word On The Street offers an eclectic experience at the Diaspora Dialogues Tent Toronto Mash-Up, cultural remix at its most eclectic, will take place between 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. For this special initiative, Diaspora Dialogues handed over stories, poetry and plays from its anthology series TOK to actors, performers, dancers and opera singers to reinterpret through their own artistic mediums. Come experience the creative energy that is unleashed when text meets re-interpretation – hear the original content read and then witness the transformation. This segment will feature performances and readings by dub poet Afua Cooper, performance artist Archer Pechawis, spoken word artist Amani, author Martha Baillie, performers Fides Krucker and Nik Beeson, Dora Award winner Waawaate Fobister, actor and playwright Leah-Simone Bowen, actor Peter Bailey, spoken word artist Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and more.
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Reading – London Public Library
Wednesday September 23, 2009
Join Martha at 7:30 PM, as she reads from her latest novel, The Incident Report.
London Ontatio, Public Library
167 Wortley Rd.
London, ON N6C 3P6
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Incidental Reading: Melvil Dewey fights back
Sunday, July 5, 2009 – 7:00PM
Toronto Public Library, Yorkville Branch
22 Yorkville Ave.
Cost: Free
Martha Baillie
Stuart Ross
Jacob McArthur Mooney
Kate Eichhorn
Theo Heras
The library becomes a theatre space as the Scream commandeers the stacks. Following Martha Baillie¹s tale of library transgressions ‹ The Incident Report (Pedlar Press, 2009) ‹ readers will take their places in the Dewey Decimal System for live performances, and where the readings themselves become incidents to be catalogued by library patrons in their own reports. Featured readers include Martha Baillie, Stuart Ross (Buying Cigarettes for the Dog), Jacob McArthur Mooney (The New Layman¹s Almanac), Kate Eichhorn (Fond) and Theo Heras (What Will We Do with the Baby-O?). Readings will take place simultaneously and patrons are invited to browse the library as they listen.
Toronto Public Library, Yorkville Branch
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Reading – Allan Gardens
Sunday, May 24th
2PM in the green house at Allan Gardens, Martha will read from The Incident Report, as part of Lit City and Doors Open Toronto.
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Kingston’s First Mini Festival of Poetry & Fiction
Friday May 15, 2009
6:00 to 8:00 pm, Kingston’s Sandra Whitton Gallery; Martha Baillie, Ronna Bloom, Roo Borson, Jacqueline Larson.
Contact Elizabeth Greene egreene4@cogeco.ca or Beth Follett feralgrl@interlog.com
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Montreal Reading
Thursday May 14, 2009
6:30 pm, Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore, Montreal; hear from Martha Baillie, The Incident Report, and Ronna Bloom, Permiso.
Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore, Montreal. tel 514.845.5811
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Reading – Ottawa Writer’s Festival
Thursday, April 30, 2009
6:30 PM, Saint Brigid’s Centre for the Arts and Humanities, 314 Saint Patrick Street (at the corner of Cumberland)
THE WRITING LIFE #2: THE ROOT OF INJUSTICE
Martha Baillie, Stuart Ross and Neil Bissoondath
Tickets: $15 / $10 Student or Senior
Free for Festival Members and Carleton Students
Simone Weil says, “The fixed point of view is the root of injustice.” Engage with three of Canada’s most respected authors whose work sheds new light on our fragmented existence.
See blog entry by John W. MacDonald
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Launch for Martha’s new novel, The Incident Report
Tuesday, April 28th:
Doors open at 7:00 PM, the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen st. West). Event starts at 7:30 with pianist Liz Acker playing Satie, then accompanying tenor Avery Krisman, who will sing the Duke’s song, la donna e mobile … From Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. Next a short experimental video, shot in Allan Gardens and the Parliament Library, directed by Gabrielle Gillespie and based on Martha’s new novel, will be screened. Martha will be interviewed by an as yet unknown interviwer (stay tuned), and the evening will wrap up with Klezmer and jazz played by Jonno Lightstone (clarinet and flute) and Tony Quarrington (guitar). This launch is part of TINARS. All welcome!
See photos of the launch taken by Open Book Toronto
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Wine Tasting and Reading – Locally Divine
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Toronto Public Library, Cliffcrest Branch, 7:00pm – 9:00pm; Martha Baillie reads from her new novel The Incident Report, a love and mystery story set in a Toronto library. Enjoy a wine tasting featuring the Wines of Ontario led by The Wine Doctor Edward Finstein.
The discussion in the first hour is free. Tickets for the wine tasting in the second hour must be purchased at the host library branch prior to the event. Tickets are $25 each and go on sale on Thursday, March 12. Space is limited. Customers must be 19 years or older.
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Reading – “LIT” up your Friday Nights with Diaspora Dialogues
Friday, April 17:
Palmerston Library – 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm – features fiction by Griffin nominee Priscila Uppal (To Whom It May Concern) and emerging writer Michelle Da Cruz; nonfiction by Martha Baillie (The Shape I Gave You); spoken word by Amani; and comedy by the hilarious Fade to Brown, Toronto’s first and only “brown” sketch comedy team.
Martha will read from The Legacy of Joseph Wagenbach.
(TORONTO) Diaspora Dialogues and Toronto Public Library team up for the fourth year in a row to jam the Palmerston Library theatre with fantastic writers and performers as part of Toronto Public Library’s Keep Toronto Reading. Come early, as the seats fill fast on these nights.
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Panel discussion on the work of Iris Haeussler
Thursday, March 5th:
6:30 PM, at Honest Eds (Bathurst and Bloor), David Moos (curator at the AGO), Prof. Shelley Hornstein (York University) and Martha Baillie will participate in a panel discussion of the work of celebrated Toronto artist, Iris Haeussler, with particular reference to her present projects, Honest Threads (Koffler Gallery at Honest Eds), and “He Named her Amber,” at the Grange in the AGO. Martha’s talk will focus on objects, memory and narrative.
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Conversation with Amelie Nothomb
Friday, Feb 6th:
6:30 PM at Northern District Library (Yonge one block north of Eglinton, on Orchardview): acclaimed Belgian novelist, Amelie Nothomb, winner of the Grand Prix de l’Academie Francaise will read in English from her most recent novel; the reading will be followed by a conversation between Nothomb and Toronto novelist Martha Baillie.
Text of Martha’s contribution …>
